We've all heard of studio interference in films. Sometimes it helps films, sometimes it breaks them. LOTR was certainly not devoid of it- the prologue in FOTR exists because of it.

I honestly would not be surprised if one of the first questions the guys reading the script asked was, "How many of the original actors can we bring back?" After all, it is Hollywood.

While I imagine the filmmakers will have an incredible amount of freedom with this project- the choosing of so many unknowns in their cast, for instance, as we've seen- I can see some appeasement of the suits by bringing back some LOTR characters. The White Council only brings in minor LOTR characters, and certainly none of the Fellowship (other than Gandalf of course). As I mentioned in my other post, we will be lucky if the filmmakers only puts them in smaller parts and does it in a way that fits the lore, fits the overall flow of the story, and remains minor.

Some of you may remember in one of the EE extras how a suit at New Line suggested killing off one of the Hobbits for more drama. I can imagine a suit with a similar thought pattern suggesting to scrap Bard and put Legolas in his role instead. After all, they're both archers who happen to come from royalty; no big difference, right?

With LOTR's success, there was no way in years that there were not going to be some tie ins, some simply perhaps the guys at the studio want to make more money with the already-proven LOTR brand. Let us hope that these tie-ins are done well and do not detract from the overall story. My LiveJournal ~ My artwork and photography

NARF since age 8, when I refused to read the Hobbit because the cover looked boring and icky.